The present invention relates to a discharge head; and more particularly to a discharge head for a multistage vertical pump at high pressure, including vertical turbine solids handling (VTSH) pumps. 2. Brief Description of Related Art
VTSH pumps are known in the art which operate in an upright position and employ a bowl assembly including a rotary impeller submerged in a body of liquid or fluid to be pumped having entrained stringy material and other solids. VTSH pumps are typically more efficient over a broad capacity range than conventional solids-handling pumps, and can be used with a wide variety of standard above-ground drives, thus eliminating the need for submersible drives.
By way of example, FIGS. 1 and 2 show a known VTSH pump assembly by Fairbanks Morse Pumps, where FIG. 1 shows a diagram of a known vertical turbine solids handling (VTSH) pumps assembly generally indicated as 10 by Fairbanks Morse Pumps, where FIGS. 2a to 2d show a drawing of the known VTSH pump assembly shown in FIG. 1. In general, the VTSH pump 10 has a head 12 coupled between a pump generally indicated as 20 to a motor 30. In general, as shown the pump includes insolids-handling impellers with blunt, well-rounded leading vanes and a thick hydrofoil shape to ensure passage of large solids and long stringy materials; the discharge diffuser has three symmetrically arranged well-rounded vanes which serve to balance the radial hydraulic forces and eliminate the radial load of the impeller; the suction bell has four guide vanes to streamline flow entering the impeller and the absence of a tail bearing eliminates any obstruction to the debris flowing to the impeller; the entire length of the column is furnished with an internal vertical splitter plate aligned with the vertical exits of the bowl vane; the splitter plate continues into the discharge connection, preventing trash accumulation on the shaft-enclosing tube; either a surface or underground discharge connection can be provided; and lineshaft and bearings are fully enclosed, separately lubricated and isolated from the pumped liquid. In particular, the head 12 has a seal housing pipe 14 coupled between an elbow transition 16 and a mounting plate 18 for seating the motor 20; and the seal housing pipe 14 has a diametrically-opposing openings 14a for allowing the coupling of the shaft 20a of the pump 20 and the shaft 30a of the motor 30 using a coupling 40. One disadvantage of this VTSH pump design, is that the seal housing pipe 14 makes it difficult to couple together the shaft 20a of the pump 20 and the shaft 30a of the motor 30 using the coupling 40.
Other VTSH pumps are also known, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,063,849 and 5,496,150, where the '849 patent discloses a discharge pump having a discharge elbow with diametrically-opposing openings, and where the '150 patent discloses a VTSH pump having a discharge elbow 30 without any such diametrically-opposing openings.
There is a need in the industry for a VTSH pump design that makes it quicker and easier to couple together the shaft of a pump and the shaft of a motor.